Monday, July 1, 2013

Meeting farmers, hearing their stories

By
Kerry Huang

A lot
can happen in a month. A business can be started. A house can be built. A farm
can be planted. Or a life can be changed.

Only five
weeks ago, I was in my comfortable room back home in Rochester with no clue of
what I was getting myself into. After all, I have been to Central America
before; how different could it be this time? What I didn’t realize was that
living in a place for an extended period of time is completely different from
vacationing there for a week. Since my first blog, I got to see and learn a lot
more about life in La Unión. This post touches on two different aspects about my
observations and opinions, both centered on farmers I have met in Honduras
while in the office.

Kerry talks with farmers receiving their microloans.

Specifically,
I have been busy working on microloans and on my research project. Here, microloans
are distributed to farmers in the form of fertilizers. Farmers from aldeas
(villages) around La Unión come to pick up their orders and receive any other
information they need for their next monthly meeting. In preparing for
microloans, we needed to set up a distribution sheet for all the farmers and go
over what types of fertilizers they requested. Lead by Martir, Gilberto and
Pedro, we reviewed every client’s loan application and determined how much each
farmer qualified for and how much they would receive for their microloan. These
numbers take into account the farmer’s attendance at bimonthly meetings and
repayment records from past microloans.

Every
client who came into the office had a story. The farmer that made the deepest
impression on me was a man who walked in with crutches. At first, I thought his
foot had nails in it that came through his socks, but that didn’t seem
plausible. I glanced back. It did. On March 6th of this year, he had
been chopping wood with an ax and accidentally chopped right through his foot. The
nails were surgically implanted to hold his foot together until the wound
healed. He is hoping to get the nails taken out in September but will need
another checkup just in case.

In
the aldeas, surgeries and emergency medical care aren’t available for many
miles. The nearest hospitals are 2-3 hours away by bus, and for more serious
cases, residents need to travel to San Pedro, about 5 hours away by bus. This
farmer’s accident would have cost him not only medical bills, but also the
income lost from not being able to work on his farm. Moreover, like much of
Central America, his farm suffered from roya, or coffee leaf rust disease,
which would have further impacted his harvest income. I can only imagine the
hardships he endured (and still is enduring) to support his family. Despite the
situation, his strength resonated. This has been a recurring theme with all
residents of La Unión: resilience. They find a way to come back.

I was
likewise impacted by another example of strength and resilience. It regards a
common story shared by only a handful of voices: the voices of women. In the
week and a half of microloans, I was excited to see a few women farmers walk in
to buy fertilizer. In La Unión, women typically stay at home to cook (it may
take hours to prepare one meal) and take care of their children (many
households have three or more children). The male of the household is usually
in charge of working on the farm or other business. In one of my conversations
with Hondurans from La Unión, I mentioned that some fathers in the U.S. stay at
home to take care of the children and do household work while the mother supports
the family with her job. They simply laughed and thought I was joking. Although
women in Honduras have many duties, they are usually not the main
income-generator of the household. That is why I was very excited to witness five
women, out of 143 clients, walk into the office for their microloans. Although
only five physically came into the office, we have a total of 24 women
microloan clients—17% of our total clients. (For those who didn’t come into the
office, either their husbands picked up the fertilizer, or the village organized
one or two representatives with trucks to pick up everyone’s fertilizer.) I
recall learning that one of the women farmers represents La Cuesta as a village
leader. And, in the town of La Unión, another woman simultaneously raises her
three daughters, manages her coffee farms, and owns a coffee processing
facility. I was impressed by the strength and independence these women show in
their leadership roles.

By
interacting with these and other farmers during these past few weeks, I have
witnessed their unceasing ability to overcome obstacles. Whether faced with
economic or social obstacles, they adopt a mentality of not succumbing to
defeat—this is not for themselves, but for their family and their children. In
every interview and every meeting with the farmers I have had, I see their
faces light up as they mention their children, their cousins, and their
parents. Through my conversations, I'm continuing to see how the people of La Unión work to support the ones they love.

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